Christmas is nearly upon us and it’s a time when most of us get a well-earned break, if not through to the New Year then hopefully for a day or two at least.  However, actually taking that break isn’t always as easy as it sounds when work is nagging at the back of your mind.  No amount of sprouts, monopoly and Strictly specials can stop you from thinking about that proposal that needs to be submitted in the first week back or how you’re going to achieve next year’s financial targets.  So, to help you have the break you deserve, here are my top 5 tips for taking a break.

1.Write a To Do list

It sounds obvious but, if it looks like you’re not going to get everything done that you want, write a To Do list for the New Year.  Not only will the act of writing down your tasks make you feel better on a mental level, it will give you a clear plan for what you need to crack on with when you get back to work in the New Year and December seems like a distant memory!

2. Plan your social media

If you want to continue engaging via social media while you’re taking a break then there are a number of options available.  Social media management tools such as Buffer are excellent and allow you to schedule tweets, facebook updates, etc. for while you’re away.  As an alternative, there are lots of companies who will do these updates for you while you’re away and keep you in touch with your friends and followers.

3. Let your customers know when you are due to go away and – more importantly – when you will be back

If possible let you key clients know when you’re due to be on leave and be sure to put your ‘Out of Office’ on in your email system and update your voicemail to let them know when you will be able to get back to them.  Everyone expects you to take a break, but what’s really important is setting the expectation with the client so they know when they can expect to hear from you.

If you really don’t want to miss any calls or delay any email responses then there are other services you can use, which brings me on to:

4. Get some help to complete urgent tasks

There are lots of great independent companies offering virtual PA services that can be invaluable in helping you take a break.  Everything from writing and proofing important reports and getting expenses submitted to answering phones and emails as mentioned above can be outsourced.

5. If you want to check your phone/email then do so but only occasionally

I’m aware the generally accepted advice here is to turn off your phone and “don’t think about work until you’re back”.  However, it’s not always as simple as that – especially if it’s your own business or you are responsible for an ongoing large deal or key client.  Ignoring the phone and email can actually end up making you feel more anxious during your time off.  So if you do feel the need to check you messages then do so, but just make sure the phone only goes on occasionally.

I hope these tips help and everyone gets at least a little time off to relax this Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Next in our series of Q&As with edtech thought leaders is Co-founder of Applicaa, Guthrie Denniston.

Guthrie and the team at Applicaa have created a solution so schools can manage their admissions process online, saving time and money in the process.

The admissions process has become even more of a challenge with the restrictions Covid has brought, but Applicaa has found ways to support schools further with virtual open days.

Check out Nick and Guthrie‘s virtual get together below where they talk about what makes this solution unique, the difference this company makes to schools and parents, and future challenges.

We’ve split the full interview into parts to make it a bit easier to digest. Enjoy!

Over the summer, we took the opportunity to have a virtual get together with thought leader and entrepreneur Josh Perry to talk all things education.

Josh has a diverse and creative background, having worked in a large, progressive MAT himself and then going on to start numerous edtech businesses.

Really interesting views on everything from the role of MATs in an emerging tech market, his new projects (including Carousel, Smartgrade and advisory work), trends in the MIS sector, his Bring More Data blog, thoughts on forthcoming MIS mergers/acquisitions, and a great deal more!

Lots of insightful stuff was discussed so we’ve split the interview out into separate parts below – enjoy!

Hello Summer!  The school holidays are here at last and it’s a time when most of us get a well-earned break.  However, actually taking that break isn’t always as easy as it sounds when work is nagging at the back of your mind.  No amount of sun, sea and children telling you they’re bored can stop you from thinking about that proposal that needs to be submitted in the first week back or how you’re going to achieve next month’s financial targets.  So, to help you have the break you deserve, here are my top 5 tips for taking a break.

1. Write a To Do list

It sounds obvious but, if it looks like you’re not going to get everything done that you want, write a To Do list for when you’re back.  Not only will the act of writing down your tasks make you feel better on a mental level, it will give you a clear plan for what you need to crack on with when you get back to work and the holidays seem like a distant memory!

2.  Plan your social media

If you want to continue engaging via social media while you’re taking a break then there are a number of options available.  Social media management tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer are excellent and allow you to schedule tweets, etc. for while you’re away.  As an alternative, there are lots of companies who will do these updates for you while you’re away and keep you in touch with your friends and followers.

3. Let your customers know when you are due to go away and – more importantly – when you will be back

If possible let you key clients know when you’re due to be on leave and be sure to put your ‘Out of Office’ on in your email system and update your voicemail to let them know when you will be able to get back to them.  Everyone expects you to take a break, but what’s really important is setting the expectation with your clients so they know when they can expect to hear from you.

If you really don’t want to miss any calls or delay any email responses then there are other services you can use, which brings me on to:

4. Get some help to complete urgent tasks

There are lots of great independent companies offering virtual PA services that can be invaluable in helping you take a break.  Everything from writing and proofing important reports and getting expenses submitted to answering phones and emails as mentioned above can be outsourced.

5. If you want to check your phone/email then do so but only occasionally

I’m aware the generally accepted advice here is to turn off your phone and “don’t think about work until you’re back”.  However, it’s not always as simple as that – especially if it’s your own business or you are responsible for an ongoing large deal or key client.  Ignoring the phone and email can actually end up making you feel more anxious during your time off.  So if you do feel the need to check you messages then do so, but just make sure the phone only goes on occasionally.

I hope these tips help and everyone gets at least a little time off to relax over the Summer holidays

What’s the role of Management Information Systems in schools these days?  Something to save teachers time?   That’s what is was first invented for in the 80’s but it’s not what it’s about now.

Something to give the government more insight?  While government and academy chiefs want to know more about each child, teachers say data entry has become burdensome and a source of stress.

We work with MIS suppliers all the time but I wanted the opinion of a school leader, so I asked my headteacher friend what she thinks schools need from an MIS.  Her response was straight to the point:

1. Everyone needs to be able to use it whenever they want, however they want
2. It’s not just about school staff any more – it’s for parents and students too
3. You need to prove you’re getting value for money
4. It needs to make your lives easier every day
5. It has to support your School Development Plan
6. It can’t be unnecessarily complicated – people just won’t use it.

So what do you choose to achieve the above?

There are more choices available now than ever. Local MIS support units who traditionally only supported a single supplier now offer their customers a range of MIS contracts. They support the process, not the product.

MIS will continue to evolve as schools and academies evolve – it has to.  There’s no point in sticking with the old way of doing things purely because “this is what we’ve always done”.

I am pleased to be asked to present a session and also chair a further panel discussion on the future of technology and how this will effect Schools, Further Education and Higher Education at Bett Asia in March 2020.

I have a number of ideas that I have expressed before on data and AI, but I would be really interested in where you feel technology is going (i.e Robotics, AI, Machine Learning, Automated cars etc..) How will this positively effect education in the future?

I’d love to hear from you at hello@finnemoreconsulting.com.  Remember all ideas are good ideas (just not all ideas are good commercial ideas!!)

In Systems engineering and Requirements engineering, a Non-Functional Requirement (NFR) is a requirement that specifies criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a system, rather than specific behaviours. Previously this would be mainly Architecture of the system. For example: Scalability, Accessibility, Capacity. These are all still important, however, it should be about more than this in a SaaS world!

Why do I think this is far more important then ever to get right? From an Architecture perspective, you need to get this right or you will have heavy costs fixing issues in the future. But more importantly you should be setting out to the business what are your expectations of the overall customer experience. You have to remember that software is not a solution on its own, everything from the purchasing journey to the training journey and how you are going to support your customers, are also part of the overall solution, and getting this right will retain customer loyalty.

When thinking of your NFR, think about the experience you want your customers to have and draw out all these journeys, so that every area of the business is aware of their responsibility.  Some questions to ask are:

• Are we going to offer free trials? If so, how are we going to support them? What do we need from development, sales, pre-sales, marketing?
• What is the work flow for customers to purchase? Do we have Account Managers selling? Are we expecting customers to purchase from a portal? Who across the business needs to be involved?
• Are we going to do all training online? Will this be self service? Do we have partners who need to train the software? Are we going to sell the environments?  Who across the business needs to be involved?
• How are we going to support our customers, once they are trained and on-board?

There are many more questions, but all of them will have a potential impact on the overall solution (incl. Architecture) and customer satisfaction. Once you have been through this exercise, most NFRs will be the same for subsequent solutions. But always review the NFRs and learn how you can make the solution better.

I keep reading everywhere that ‘this year is the year of the Entrepreneur’ and if it is then that’s fantastic news.  I love working with new businesses as they very rarely have the bad habits and crushing politics that established corporates can have so I’m very happy about it all.  However, if it’s the year of the entrepreneur then it’s surely also the year that everyone talks about Imposter Syndrome as where there’s a budding entrepreneur there’s almost certainly someone suffering from Imposter Syndrome.

Wikipedia describes Imposter Syndrome as “a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be”.

Make sense?  Sound familiar??  I would imagine to a huge amount of people it does so the big question here is: how do you overcome it?  It’s a matter of putting things in perspective.  I don’t think there’s a prescribed answer but there’s a lot of great advice out there when you search for it.  In fact I think the best advice I can give you on this is to definitely do a search on it see what comes up because, not only will you find some excellent articles and recommendations on how to deal with it, you’ll also see that there are literally thousands and thousands of people all feeling the same way, all worried that they’ll get found out too for no reason whatsoever.  If that doesn’t help you get some perspective and see that there’s nothing to fear and you’re fab at what you do I don’t know what will.

I’d welcome advice and links on this subject as it affects so many of us so – all comments greatly appreciated!

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Jurassic Park, 1993

Sound business advice there. Just because you can build it, it doesn’t mean you should.

So why do so many tech companies go all Jurassic Park on us and stuff their solutions with things their users really don’t want or need?

I see it happen a lot in my industry – the Edtech sector – ultimately to the detriment of the company and their clients. If you want to avoid this pitfall keep these 3 things in mind with everything you develop:

1. Keep it simple to begin with and create a product which deals with a specific Big Problem
2. Keep focus but keep iterating, all the while solving bigger, related problems
3. Constantly refer back to the vision of the Big Problem that will be solved. If it doesn’t help don’t do it!

Your product is better than that other company’s product. Fact.

You know that to be true because, when you measure your product against whatever metric you’ve made up, your product comes out better.

But if customers aren’t moving to you in droves, your opinion that your product is ‘better’ is simply wrong.

You’re using the wrong metric.

You have to take the time to understand what it is your customers actually want – that’s how you create a product that’s better.

Your thing might be great in your eyes but it’s customer opinion that ultimately matters.